The Angel's Game
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Our view
“The Angel’s Game” returns to the Barcelona of “The Shadow of the Wind” in a darker key, and its atmosphere is the reason to read it. Some readers praise Zafón’s nostalgic, lyrical prose and the gothic sweep of David’s story, by turns frightening and mournful. Others find the plot tangled and its ending short on answers, and rank the book below its predecessor. This prequel revisits the Cemetery of Forgotten Books.
The view of the BookRank editors, written from readers’ ratings and comments. It does not affect the score or the book’s place in a ranking.
About the book
The Angel's Game is a prequel to 2001's The Shadow of the Wind, by Spanish author Carlos Ruiz Zafón. The novel marks a return to The Cemetery of Forgotten Books in Barcelona's Raval district, and the Sempere & Sons bookshop. Like The Shadow of the Wind, it was translated into English by Lucia Graves and published in 2009. In Spain it was published in 2008. The planned initial print run broke all publishing records in the country, with one million copies.
Where the score comes from
The sources average 8.0 across 298 ratings — not yet many, so the reader vote carries 67% of the weight and the rest pulls toward the Rankings average of 7.8. That is how 7.9 comes out.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hardcover | 8.0 | 298 | 100% |
In this book
Themes this book shares with others — each leads to the best books on it.